Employment Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in what has been an absolutely fascinating debate on the government amendment. I will of course deal with the amendments spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Henley, who I thank for his remarks. I feel obliged to make one or two comments in response to the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Campbell of Alloway. First, I emphasise how grateful the Government, and particularly my noble friend Lord Jones, have been to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, for the interest that he has taken in this and his suggestions, but there seem to be some mistakes in memory. As I understand it, the noble Lord, Lord Campbell, saw my officials last Friday. As a result of that meeting, it was suggested to him that he might like to speak to my noble friend Lord Jones over the weekend: that is, between my noble friend coming back from Mexico and going to Azerbaijan—in both cases to try to win exports for this country, let it be said. He had a brief window during the weekend when he was in the UK, and was willing—indeed, wanted—to talk to the noble Lord. However, as I understand it—I was not present—the noble Lord, in his usual generous spirit, commented that he did not want to interrupt my noble friend’s brief weekend. That discussion was possible, but it was not taken up.